Country needs a government prepared to deal with most serious issue facing society: Economic unsustainability of haredi way of life.

There’s more than an even chance that this summer’s Knesset session, due to
start next month, will be this government’s last. As much as Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu insists that he is not interested in calling early elections,
a coalition entering its fourth year is far from stable, despite the impressive
majority it might have on paper. In fact, the cracks are already beginning to
appear

Once the Knesset passes the halfway point of its four-year term,
its members are already busy thinking about the upcoming polls, and for good
reason: no Israeli government has ever sat out its complete tenure. Kadima has
already shrugged off Tzipi Livni and placed Shaul Mofaz in the driver’s seat for
what will be a make-or-break election for this most unnatural of parties, glued
together more by a dream of sitting in government than any cohesive vision for
Israeli society

Inside the Likud, ministers such as Moshe Ya’alon and
Yisrael Katz are busy sharpening their right-wing credentials in preparation for
the party primaries, attacking the settlers’ bête noire, Defense Minister Ehud
Barak, at any and every opportunity

The words “cabinet collegiality” are
not part of this government’s dictionary

The divisions inside the
coalition are only getting wider as the government faces a number of issues it
can no longer put off dealing with. Among these issues are the fate of illegal
building in the Ulpana neighborhood of the Beit El settlement and the future of
the Migron outpost, which the High Court has – finally – ordered must be
evacuated by August 1

On top of this, the Tal Law expires in July, ending
the scandalous exemption from IDF service enjoyed by haredi (ultra-Orthodox)
yeshiva students. It’s hard to see how a government including Yisrael Beytenu on
the one hand, and Shas and United Torah Judaism on the other, are going to find
a compromise on the issue of equal service for all, particularly when they know
they will soon be facing their electorates and need some accomplishment to show
their voters

And then there’s the upcoming 2013 state budget. The
economic reality is that the government will have to cut some NIS 15 billion
from next year’s budget if it wants to keep the national deficit from
ballooning

But few politicians seeking re-election are prepared to vote
in favor of sizable cuts in social spending. As Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin
told fellow Likud members last month: “The current coalition will find it
difficult to reach an agreement over the 2013 budget. A party with 27 seats [the
Likud] will struggle to pass a budget so conflicted in its priorities between
socioeconomic needs and security considerations.” BUT THESE considerations,
important as they might be, are only short-term issues

What the country
really needs is a government prepared to deal with the most serious issue facing
Israeli society: the economic unsustainability of the haredi way of life and the
effect it has on the rest of society given this sector’s ever-increasing
population growth

Dry statistics are one thing, but a chance meeting at a
recent social event with a haredi acquaintance drove home for me the sheer
absurdity of today’s system

Avraham (not his real name) is in his mid-
40s and, thank God, the father of nine. Luckily for Avraham, he doesn’t have to
provide for his family

Instead, the taxpayers are doing it for
him

Every day, when the yeshiva is in session (and there are some
extremely long breaks in between the three annual terms), Avraham takes a shared
taxi to Mea She’arim around seven in the morning and has breakfast at the
yeshiva. He then studies with a partner whatever topic he has decided to learn –
there is no set syllabus, and each student is free to choose whichever area
interests him (of course it’s a him – the women are too busy bringing up
children, perhaps working part-time and engaging with the real
world)

After a break for lunch provided by the yeshiva, it’s time for an
afternoon nap and then an afternoon study session with a different partner.
Again, there are no set topics and Avraham is under no pressure whatsoever to
sit any exam to show that his time in study has actually paid off in terms of
increased knowledge

All this pursuit of Torah knowledge for the sake of
learning alone is financed by the state through a stipend Avraham receives from
the yeshiva and child allowances. And it’s unlimited: Avraham has been going to
the yeshiva daily for the past 20 years or so, studying whatever takes his
fancy, without a care in the world. As he told me, it’s a great life. He’s doing
something he enjoys, there’s no pressure and – this he didn’t say – I’m the one
paying for him to spend his life this way

As Bank of Israel Governor
Stanley Fischer told a recent conference at Harvard Business School, this way of
life is unsustainable

Pointedly, Fischer added: “I say to ultra-Orthodox
groups... this will end. The question is whether it’s going to end by your doing
something in cooperation with the rest of the population or in social
conflict

But it cannot go on.” Netanyahu’s government has shown it’s
unwilling to deal with this problem; for this alone, it deserves to fall. The
question is: will the next coalition be any better?